MICKEY GUIDRY - 16 yo (2009) - San Marcos CA

Anza Borrego) – San Diego Sheriff reported on December 18 that Mickey
Guidry, 16, has been missing since November 26th when he ran away from
his parents’ home in San Marcos.

Guidry reportedly took his parents’
1995 Jeep Cherokee without permission. On November 30th, the Jeep was
located unoccupied in an extremely remote area of the Anza Borrego
Desert.

Grounded for stealing his stepfather's motorcycle and going
joyriding November 20th in a Riverside County park, 16-year-old Mickey
Guidry (also called Mike or Mikey) took his parents’ blue Jeep Grand
Cherokee SUV on Thanksgiving to join friends who were camping at 5454
Split Mountain Road in Ocotillo Wells. He left camp at 3 p.m. on
Friday, November 27th—and hasn’t been seen since. Now ECM has learned
that this wasn't the first time the teen has gone missing. Sheriff
officials are treating the case as a runaway--but the boy's mother
fears her son may be the victim of foul play.


On Saturday, the 28th, a family off-roading reported the Jeep
abandoned, tire worn to the rim, along Fish Creek Wash, 22 miles along
a rugged, rocky off-road vehicle trail on November 28th. They spotted
it in the morning, but didn’t report it until 5:30 p.m., when Ranger
Don Strampfer at Anza Borrego State Park confirmed the Jeep had been
reported stolen. Guidry’s stepfather reported the Jeep stolen but
declined to file a missing persons report on his son, believing the boy
would return as he had in the prior joyriding episode.He'd asked
permission to go camping for the weekend with friends, and when his
parents refused, he took off in the Jeep.

Unaware that a teen was missing, Strampfer waiting until Sunday to
visit the site by daylight. He found a key in the ignition and turned
it, but the vehicle was not driveable, stuck in sand with one wheel.
“The front bumper was torn off. The front tire was blown off and the
rim was melted down. He was hell-bent to get where he was going
(assuming Guidry was driving). He couldn’t go any further,” he said,
adding that Guidry likely took off on foot—or may have been picked up
by passerbys, since it was the businest weekend of the year for
off-roading.
But Guidry’s wallet, with his high school ID, was left in the
vehicle. His cell phone had been shut off after his parents reported
the vehicle stolen. Authorities believe the teen may have tried to walk
back, or cut across rough terrain around 8 miles to Highway 78.

He had no flashlight. No water. No food. His wallet, ID, and clothes
were left behind in the Jeep. No working cell phone. His cell phone,
though its service was cut off, was not in the vehicle when it was
found.


Despite these disturbing circumstances, Sheriff’s officials have
treated his disappearance as a teen runaway case. No forensic evidence
was gathered from the Jeep or the scene where it was found. Only a
cursory search has been done on the boy’s computer. Media was not
notified of the missing teen until three weeks after his
disappearance—and then only because an aerial search was finally
mounted; officials say they issued a release because the public would
ask questions about helicopters and dog teams combing the area weeks
after the teen vanished.

“There is no explanation as to why the SD Sheriffs didn’t bother to
start looking for him until three weeks after I reported him missing,”
Mickey’s mother, Missy Perucca, posted in a comment on East County
Magazine February 8th. They tell me that they “thought he’d been found
already”…but they never verified it."

Some authorities dispute that contention; Sheriff’s representatives,
Ranger Stampfer, and Guidry’s mother provide conflicting details.

On Monday, November 30th, Ranger Stampfer reached Perucca, Guidry’s
mother, to inform her the Jeep had been found. He confirmed that she
told him her son had taken the Jeep.
She filed a missing person’s report on her son later that same day
with the San Diego County Sheriff. Detective Anthony Radicio took the
report.

“At 4:50 p.m., I received a satellite call from the boy’s stepfather
in Afghanistan,” Stampfer disclosed, adding that Guidry’s mother
conveyed Stampfer’s request to her husband. Major Douglas Perucca had
deployed to Afghanistan on November 28th, the Saturday after his son
took the Jeep. “He said Mickey was familiar with that area, because
he’d taken him out there multiple times,” Stampfer recalled.

On Saturday, December 5th, Stampfer next heard from family friends who came to get the Jeep.

“If it was my kid, I would have had my own search team out there 24/7—immediately,” he noted.

Stampfer then arranged a meeting with his staff and supervisor, and
made flyers to post in the Anza-Borrego area. He next spoke with
Mickey’s mother on the 12th. “She called me back to ask if we found a
cell phone in the Jeep, and she informed me that her son, Mickey, was
still missing,” he said.

He received a call from Detective Pat Yates, San Marcos Sheriff
Substation, at some point and learned that a major search was being
planned. But Stampfer confirmed, “Nobody did a search in at least the
first week.”

Mickey’s mother says she made numerous calls to Sheriff’s
officials. “They just said, `Oh, he ran away. He’ll come home when he
is ready. They pretty much just blew it off until I sent them a
letter…I told them I would go higher up, up to the media, whoever was
higher because they wouldn’t give it any attention,” she told East
County Magazine.
Jan Caldwell, spokesperson for Sheriff Bill Gore (photo, left), says
a deputy responded “immediately” after the first call was made. “The
detective has tried numerous times to speak with the parents, however
his calls are never returned,” she said in an e-mail to East County
Magazine. “He has even left cards with neighbors.”

Caldwell suggested we invite the boy’s mother to meet with us and
detectives. She declined, stating she felt it would be a waste of time
and that she would rather spend time searching for her son or seeking
media coverage of his case. So ECM met with three Sheriff’s
representatives on our own.

“I can tell you that the husband did not report the kid missing for
several days, even though they reported the car stolen,” said Captain
Don Crist. “There were several prior incidents like this one.”

One week earlier, detectives learned, Guidry’s stepfather reported
his motorcycle stolen. Guidry had taken it joyriding on Ortega Highway
in a state park in Riverside County. When it ran out of gas, he walked
out and upon meeting up with a park ranger, made up a story that he’d
been kidnapped, but escaped. The fib sparked a helicopter search for
the kidnappers, until the teen confessed to a Riverside Sheriff’s
deputy that the story was not true.
According to Detective Patrick Yates, “The Mom reported that had
happened before that. Ours is perhaps the third or fourth time that he
had taken a vehicle from the parents.” Perucca disputes that there were
prior episodes, but did confirm the Riverside situation. “He was just
stupid. He was afraid he would get in trouble, so he told them he’d
been kidnapped. He didn’t realize it would be such a big problem and
start a big search.”

Asked if the family got a bill for the search due to the bogus
story, she replied, “They said they were going to send us the bill, but
they haven’t yet.”

Crist said the stepfather was advised when reporting the Jeep stolen
that the boy could be apprehended at gunpoint, since without a missing
persons report, deputies would assume the driver to be armed and
dangerous. He said it is rare for parents to follow through with a
stolen vehicle report by a teen for that reason. “Three times they
declined to report him missing,” he said.

At first, Perucca said that she and her husband believed Mickey
would return home after the weekend, and assumed he was safe with
friends. They had the cell phone company turn off his cell phone
service as a punishment and planned to ground him when he came home.

But he never returned.

Crist defends the department’s actions. “We did take it seriously.
We expended a lot of energy,” he said. “Our detective went to the
house. He even left cards with neighbors. We even tried to call the
father in Afghanistan on his cell phone…She [the mother] even said
`Quit calling my neighbors.’”

But Perucca tells a different story. “They never said they wanted
him to contact them,” she said of her husband. “They never once asked
for his e-mail.” She said she stopped responding to the detective who
came to the house because she didn’t believe he was taking the case
seriously.

“I told him to assign the case to somebody else—he kept saying `Your
son is a runaway and we’re not going to look for him. After those three
weeks, I told him `Don’t call me and don’t go to my house anymore. I
wanted the case to go to someone who would actually go look for my
son….How do they know he didn’t get picked up by some pervert and
buried in the desert?”

She said she had friends on dirt bikes go search the desert for her
son. She contacted the National Center for Missing and Exploited
Children and had flyers made.
Guidry is listed there as an "endangred runaway." Mickey's mother said
officials in local law enforcement tried to discourage her from putting
up posters. “They said not to waste my time.”


On December 14th, Yates said he got a call from the boy's mother,
who hung up when he put her on hold for “less than 30 seconds” to
respond to Deputy Radicia. He says he called all of her phone numbers
and the stepfather’s several times over the next three days, then
knocked on neighbors’ doors.

He said when the boy was first reported missing, the department
viewed it as a “standard runaway case.” There are more than one
million missing kids, he added.

Asked how many runaways return within the first 48 hours or so, he
acknowledged, “99%.” Most of the rest are parental abductions, he
confirmed.

Asked why a disabled vehicle abandoned in a remote desert location
wouldn’t trigger concern that the boy may have come to harm, he
replied, “People dump vehicles in the middle of nowhere all the time.”

Asked why the department finally issued a press release, posted
quietly on its website on December 17 or 18, he replied, “Generally
when there is a lot of activity in the field, the public will ask
questions.”

As for why Search and Rescue operations were not commenced until
December 17th, with a major search not held until December 20--over
three weeks after the vehicle was found--Yates maintained that there
was a search “immediately” with “units on the ground and in the air. He
said Rangers in Anza Borrego had also done some initial searching.

When asked about Yates’ statement, Stampfer expressed surprise. “I
do circles around for about a hundred yards and follow prints, but it’s
nothing like a major search with helicopters and dogs.” He was not
certain when the first air search or use of dogs occurred, but
confirmed, “Nobody did a search in at least the first week.”

Perucca is upset that the Sheriff has refused to conduct forensic
tests on the vehicle. “They never looked at the car,” she said, adding
that rain would have destroyed any prints long before the Sheriff’s
searches began weeks after Mickey disappeared. “My friends brought it
on a flat bed truck and took it home…They never once said can we look
at the car.”

Yates said he examined the vehicle, but didn’t say where. Crist said
no forensics would be taken because “there was no evidence of a crime.”
He added that there could be hundreds of prints, adding “We could bog
down the system looking for prints on this and prevent a rape case from
getting forensics done…We’re not going to do anything further.”

Told of Yates statement, Perucca responded with anger. “He only
looked at the outside of the car. He never looked at the inside. I had
it locked. The alarm was set. From the time we reported it missing,
they had an entire week to go out to see the car in the desert and they
never did….I think what they’re realizing now is they did wrong in this
initial thing and they’re trying to cover their butts.”

Stampfer said he looked inside the vehicle and didn’t note anything
obviously amiss, such as blood stains. He expressed surprise when told
that the Sheriff’s office has declined to take fingerprints, though he
concurred with Yates’ contention that it would be hard to find a
suspect’s prints when so many other people had been in the vehicle.

Donald A. Parker, sergeant in charge of Search and Rescue operations
for the San Diego Sheriff, says he did not find out about the missing
teen until December 16th. He and Astrea helicopter pilots flew out the
next day but found nothing, other than tracks in the dirt where the
Jeep had been (it was removed by friends of the family), and a white
blanket that may have been Guidry’s in a wash northeast of the Jeep
site.

In coming days, more searches were done by air and on foot.
Searchers used Google Earth, knowing they were likely searching for a
body after so many weeks. They focused on the route from Split Mountain
to the Jeep’s end location at longitude N. 33, 02, 55, W. 116, 01, 54,
as well as the route Guidry may have taken on foot if he’d struck out
over rugged, boulder-strewn terrain toward Highway 78, visible from a
rise near where the blanket was found.

On December 20th, with weather down to 25 degrees, a major search
was finally launched with helicopters, Parker, Yates, and about 50
trained volunteer searchers. San Diego’s Search and Rescue has a
national reputation for excellence, said Parker. “They all get
training. We have one academy a year and we’re always looking for
volunteers.” Volunteer searchers include the CEO of Scripps Healthcare,
former police, former and current military members, nurses, paramedics,
software engineers, and stay-at-home grandmothers.

The Sheriff’s department also brought three or four teams of cadaver
dogs. Even after so many weeks, a body would still have a detectable
odor, said Parker, who recalled finding one body after six months. They
searched Harper Flat, where a searcher reported a smell, but found
nothing other than numerous footprints that may have belonged to
illegal border crosses who frequent the area.

Searches were also conducted using motorized units, including quad
units from the west to Pinon Valley, where a drop-off is so steep that
four-wheel drivers must winch theselves up from the command post.
Motorized vehicles searched along the route from 78 towards where the
blanket was found, but could not go the final portion due to impassable
terrain.

“We found zero—except the blanket,” Parker said.

The team did spot mountain tracks, and even made efforts to find
where a mountain lion might have holed up. “It’s literally a needle in
a haystack,” said Parker, who added that given that Guidry is 5 foot 10
and weighed 155 pounds, a mountain lion attack would be unlikely—unless
he fell and was injured.

Parker hopes to go back with a borrowed unmanned aircraft, which is
less costly than a helicopter costing $1,000 an hour. The same aircraft
has been used in the search for Amber DuBois—the missing Escondido teen
whose disappearance has been widely publicized, even making national TV
news, in stark contrast to the case of Mickey Guidry.

Parker said limited resources made it impossible to search the 200
square miles of very rugged terrain. “There are boulders the size of
this table,” he said of one wash where an earthquake struck not long
ago.

“Do I think he’s out there?” he paused. “I really don’t know.”

Sheriff’s say four basic scenarios are possible. If Guidry tried to
walk out, he may have died from exposure or injury, and simply hasn’t
been found. A positive sign is that no buzzards were spotted circling
in the vicinity visible from a ranger station, and all such sightings
are investigated due to border crossers and off-roaders who often run
into trouble in the desert.

The second scenario is a staged disappearance, in which the Jeep was
abandoned on purpose and Guidry hooked up with friends who spirited him
away. But he couldn’t have known his parents would shut off cell
service, and had no way to communicate with anyone after leaving the
campground.

Third, he could have met with foul play. Perhaps someone met him at
a gas station and forced or convinced him tp go 22 miles into the
middle of nowhere. Or he drove on his own, got stuck, then set off on
foot or got a ride with someone who had bad intentions. If so, he
could be anywhere--killed, or held captive, like Steven Staynor or
Jaycee Dugard.

The fourth possibility is that he hiked out (or got a ride) and left
voluntarily with whoever picked him up. If he made it to Highway
78,depending in which direction he went next, he might ridden to
Julian, Borrego Springs, Brawley, El Centro, the Imperial Valley or
points further east. It is also possible that he returned to the San
Diego area, or headed out of state.


Crist thinks Guidry may well have been able to reach Highway 78, or
get a ride. “He could have gotten out of there easily. There were
several options,” he asid.

“We’re sure he made it out,” Perucca told East county Magazine, “but
what happened after that? All the things that cross your mind…He’s very
impressionable. There were no troubles with drugs or alcohol,” she
said, adding that she has searched his room in the past to make sure.
She believes he had help to steal the motorcycle, and doesn’t believe
he would plan to runaway on his own.

She said she has spoken with her son’s friends, who continue calling
and texting her. “I have all his phone records, everyone he called.”
She said she spoke with the girl and her family that Mickey camped
with, and that the mother confirmed her daughter’s version of events.
Mickey’s mother referred to the girl as his “girlfriend.” She confirmed
that Mickey had reportedly told that family a tall tale, indicating his
Dad was going to Iraq.

“I don’t know where he came up with this stuff—it’s totally out of
the blue,” she said. “He wasn’t always like that. He wasn’t a big liar
other than little stuff, like did you clean the cat box? Yeah Mom, if
he was feeling lazy.” She said Mickey was slated to have a meeting with
a psychiatrist, however, because of the earlier stolen motorcycle
incident, but never made the appointment since he disappeared before.

Perucca said the family told her Mickey was wearing a white jacket,
a detail she found puzzling. He didn’t own a white jacket and had no
money to buy one, she noted.

ECM called the”girlfriend”, who declined to speak with us. We did
speak with the girl’s mother, who asked that the family’s names not be
published. Sheriff officials say the girl’s family was cooperative, but
the girl’s mother seemed less-than-candid with ECM.

“He was there with us,” the woman said. Asked when he left the camp,
she said she couldn’t remember the day, but noted, “As far as we know,
he was going home.”

Asked if they had any reason to believe he would runaway, she
replied, “Absolutely none, not a thing…We just met him so we had no
clue what he was like, didn’t know anything.” She insisted that her
daughter barely knew Mickey and that they were just school friends.

Yates said the family told authorities a somewhat different story.
“They were snowed—led to believe by Mickey that his family was
abandoning him; he told them they were splitting up and he was going to
a brother in Los Angeles. There is no brother, no siblings, and
according to his family he was not told to get out.”


Mickey showed up unannounced at the family’s campsite at the
Ocotillo Wells trailer park, he said, adding that the family told
authorities they gave Mickey gas money to get home. It is unknown
whether or not he stopped for gas before heading out on the rugged
road, which ran right by the campground, or whether he might have met
up with someone – a stranger, perhaps—at a gas station or someplace
else before heading out into the rugged terrain—if in fact he was still
driving the vehicle at that time.

ECM asked the girl’s mother what date she learned that Mickey was
missing. She said she didn’t recall. We asked when she was first
questioned by authorities. “I don’t recall if it was a day or two
later, or two weeks later,” she said. She claimed she didn’t remember
if she had talked to Mickey’s Mom. “I don’t recall talking to her
directly. She talked to my daughter,” she said. “I feel really bad that
he hasn’t shown up. As a mother I would be going crazy,” she added.

She said she found it odd that there was so little media coverage,
noting that an article in the Borreo Sun didn’t run until three or four
weeks after Mickey disappeared. “As a Mom, I would have been on the
news two or three days after my daughter was gone; after one day I
would have been calling trying to find out.”

A Google search has turned up no other media reports on Mickey’s
disappearance, other than East County Magazine’s December 22 article.
Not one. (Note: Our story indicates the Sheriff announcement of Mickey
being missing was made December 18. The Sheriff’s office has since
removed that press release from its website. The Sheriff declined our
request for written records on this case, citing a pending
investigation and the fact that we requested records more than 30 days
after the disappearance. )

Josh Watkins, a friend of Mickey’s, said he last saw Mickey shortly
before Thanksgiving, about a week before he disappeared. “He’d ridden
his Dad’s motorcycle to school,” he said. “I don’t know who he went
camping with; normally he calls me to invite me to stuff like that.”

He said Mickey was a loner who didn’t have many close friends and hung out with “random” people after school.

Asked if there was anyone Mickey was close to, he named the girl
whose family Mickey camped with the last night he was seen alive. He
described her as “really close to him” and added, “She sits next to me
in class. She was calm about it; she seemed worried but she wasn’t
extremely freaked out.” He said the girl told him she hadn’t seen
Mickey since about a week before he went missing. “I asked her if she
knew anything and she said she didn’t.”

He said he didn’t believe Mickey was involved with drugs or gangs,
and that Mickey had told him how he and his stepdad “always rode
motorcycles together; it sounded like he was having fun.”

No one interviewed for this story expressed any knowledge of any
serious problems for Mickey at home, other than the vehicle thefts. But
Watkins noted, “He hung out with some trouble-makers; he just liked to
get into trouble, do like dumb stuff.” Asked for an example he said,
“Like making bombs out of household items just for fun,” but added he
never thought Mickey would do anything threatening or “too dangerous.”

He said a Sheriff’s official called him about a week after Mickey’s
disappearance, but he didn’t return the call. A couple of weeks later
they called back and talked with him.

Sheriff’s officials don’t know what happened to Mickey Guidry. But
they assured, “nothing lends itself to foul play involving the family,
because the kid dictated his own moves.” Nor do they suspect the family
that Mickey Guidry camped with on the last day he was seen alive.

Mickey did not yet have a driver’s license. The Jeep, registered in
his stepfather’s name, was a gift for his birthday in August and was to
be transferred to his name once he obtained his license.

“That he made it this far is amazing,” Yates said of the place where
the Jeep became stranded. Strampfer concurred that it would take
considerable driving skill to navigate the treacherous dirt off-road
for so many miles.

Mickey’s mother expressed frustration that school officials at San
Marcos High School have refused to give her information. “They won’t
talk to me at all,” she says. “They say talk to the principal, but he
won’t talk to me either.”

Sheriff’s officials say that teachers and school officials have been cooperative.

East County Magazine called the school and asked to talk with school
officials, teachers, and anyone else who knew Mickey. We also asked for
public records on when the school was contacted by Sheriff’s officials,
or whether the school reported Mickey missing. One official returned
our call, only to inform us that tersely, “I’m not going to share any
information. You can speak to the parents. You can’t speak with any of
the staff members here on record,” he added, citing board policy. “And
I don’t want to be quoted in any publication I will take you to court
if it’s public.”

Mickey’s mother expressed frustration, and said she’s more than
willing to have records on Mickey made public if it could shed any
light on his whereabouts, or anyone who might know. “At this point, to
me, he doesn’t have any privacy. He needs to be in the media. Somebody
has to have seen him at some point.”

Asked where he might have wanted to go, if he left voluntarily, she
said he had wanted to go back to the family’s former home in Arkansas.
But she’s notified a realtor there to keep an eye on the home, which
was vacant for a couple of months, with no results. Mickey enjoyed
Future Farmers of America (FFA) and ROTC courses at school, though his
grades had slipped, prompting the grounding before he took off on
Thanksgiving, she said. He enjoys working with small engines—lawn
mowers and cars—so possibly could seek work in a repair shop if he did
run away, which she believes is not likely.

Sheriff’s deputies recently came to the home to take DNA samples of
her son and herself, also requesting dental records. Sheriff’s
officials say they have searched hospitals and morgues in adjacent
counties, but no match has been found.

They recently took Mickey’s computer and a cursory-level search
found nothing. Asked when a deeper search would be completed, they
would not give a date. “It’s a slow process…very bogged down, and we
have to prioritize our cases,” Yates said.

He suggested that putting up flyers for Mickey Guidry could be
counter-productive for the department. “You start putting these out
with every runaway and it hurts,” he said, suggesting that the public
would stop responding to posters for children believed in imminent
danger if too many runaway cases are publicized.

He suggested that Guidry, like the fabled boy who cried wolf, may
have been responsible for his own fate—and for law enforcement not
considering foul play a likely motive.

“Mickey was the last one to have control over his life,” Yates
concluded. “The last person who spoke to him told him, `Mickey, go
home.’”

Mickey has sandy hair and blue eyes. His birthday is August 3, 1993.
He may have been wearing blue or black shorts or Dickies jeans with
blue high-top tennis shoes.

Asked what would happen to Mickey if he should return home, Yates
“Probably nothing,” added that it’s unlikely the family would press
chargers for the stolen vehicle, as they would merely be glad to have
their son safely home.
Perucca, a scuba diving instructor (photo, right), says she is not
working because of Mickey’s disapearance. Mickey’s stepfather asked for
and received permission from the military to come home early on
compassionate leave, and was slated to arrive home last night.

“I just can’t handle this anymore,” Mickey’s mother said, her voice breaking.

Detective Yates said he has “zero leads” and encourages anyone with information to call him at (760)510-5233.

The whereabouts of a 16-year old San Marcos boy remained a mystery on
Thursday after he went missing four months ago.
Friends
and family hope a search planned for Saturday will turn up answers that
could lead them to him.
On Thanksgiving day, 16-year
old Mickey Guidry took his parents' jeep without their permission.
He joined friends camping at Split Mountain Road in Ocotillo
Wells.
The next afternoon he left camp, never to be
seen again.
On November 28th Mickey's abandoned jeep
was found along Fish Creek Wash along a rugged, rocky off-road vehicle
trail.
Mickey had no flashlight, water, food or even a
working cell phone.
His wallet, student identification
card and keys were left in the Jeep.
The vehicle was not drivable; the front bumper was torn
off, one tire was blown off and the rim, melted down.
Detectives
first treated this as a runaway case because it wasn't the first time
the teen has gone missing.
Sheriff's Search and Rescue
have scoured the area, and turned up a blanket that had come from the
jeep.
"With each passing day it it is less likely a
runaway case and more likely a missing person case," says Sergeant Don
Parker who is with the San Diego Sheriff's Department's Search and
Rescue Division.

The cases of Chelsea King and Amber Dubois are calling attention to other
cases of missing people -- including a 16-year-old boy from the North
County.
Mickey Guidry from San Marcos disappeared
during a Thanksgiving camping trip last year in the Anza Borrego Desert near Ocotillo Wells.
It's been nearly four months
and there is still no sign of the North County teenager. A search is
planned Saturday in the area Mickey was last seen.
The family of Escondido teenager Amber Dubois has spoken publicly about the case
-- urging people to help find Mickey.
Mickey's family has set-up a Facebook page to help in
the search. The case was initially classified as a runaway
but the Facebook page says it's been changed to a
missing person case.
Mickey's car was reportedly
found disabled in a very remote section of the desert with his personal
items still inside. Pictures of the car on the Facebook page show the
driver's side bumper and side view mirror had been torn off, the right
front wheel appears to be worn down to the rim.
Another website is helping organize a search for Mickey
Saturday at 9 a.m. Volunteers are asked to meet at the large
parking area north west of the 78 near Highway S-2. A map of the area
on the website shows the exact location -- it's east of Julian in the
Anza Borrego Desert State Park where the teenager went camping last
Thanksgiving and his car was found.
The site describes the
expansive search area as remote and rugged and asks that volunteers be
aware of their fitness levels and come prepared with water, snacks,
hiking gear and sun block.
According to the search website, the plan for Saturday
is to split volunteers into several large groups one will include
off-road vehicles while others will search on foot.
The California Office of the
Attorney General lists 88 missing people in San Diego County.
The disappearance
descriptions range from "stranger abduction," to "runaway juvenile" and
"unknown circumstances."

A search party will hunt this weekend in a remote section
Anza-Borrego Desert State Park for a San Marcos teenager who was last
seen over Thanksgiving
weekend.

About 100 people have tentatively signed up to help find Mickey
Guidry, 16, who was originally classified as a runaway. His family hopes
more people will join the search, which will begin at 9 a.m. Saturday.

Mickey had taken his parents’ Jeep Cherokee
without permission Nov. 27, a week after taking his stepfather’s
motorcycle for a joy ride. He met friends in the desert and reportedly
headed home on an isolated dirt road.

Witnesses said Mickey, who was not familiar with the area, left his
camping spot off Split Mountain Road in Ocotillo Wells around 3 p.m. His
mother believes he took a backcountry shortcut but underestimated the
severity of the trail.

The Jeep was found disabled the next day on a rugged, off-road
vehicle trail in Fish Creek Wash, eight miles from the nearest paved
road. Mickey’s wallet and personal belongings were inside the Jeep, and
the keys were in the ignition. A blanket that belonged to him was found
1.5 miles northeast of the abandoned vehicle. No blood was found on the
car.

A search by the Sheriff’s Department turned up no other clues,
according to Mickey’s stepfather, Air Force Major Douglas Perucca. He
said that gives him hope that Mickey may be alive, but then he thinks
someone would have contacted the family if he were OK.

“I’m still not sure what to believe,” Perucca said. “We’re just
hoping to get some closure.”

Chris Crawford, a friend who is serving as spokesman for the family,
said publicity could jar the memory of someone who may have seen Mickey
hiking in a nearby canyon or gave him a ride that day.

“He may be laying low out of fear of being punished,” Crawford said.
“That’s the big hope. The only way we’ll find this kid is if we get the
word out.”

Crawford said people with search-and-rescue experience will help lead
teams to look for the teen, who is 5 feet 10, 155 pounds, with sandy
blonde hair. State park rangers will brief search-party members on
safety concerns in the desert.

“It’s a harsh environment. It’s very remote,” Crawford said. “I hope
that anyone that shows up is physically fit. Preferably, it will be
people with four-wheel drive or Jeeps.”

Perucca, who, returned from Afghanistan
about a month ago, helped organize this weekend’s search.

“This has spread like wildfire through the Internet,” Perucca said.
“We want to thank everyone who has volunteered to help. There’s been an
amazing rallying of the community. We’re shocked.”

The family of missing San Marcos teenager Mickey James Guidry
harnessed a recent surge of community support this weekend to renew
their search for the 16-year-old boy in the desert where he was
last seen in November.

Mickey's family and friends joined about 80 volunteers Saturday
to scour the Anza Borrego desert where the family's jeep was found
Nov. 28, undrivable with his wallet and other belongings inside,
according to a Facebook page devoted to finding Mickey. A smaller
group planned to continue the search Sunday, organizers said.

Interest in the boy's disappearance surged after Moe Dubois,
father of slain Escondido teenager Amber Dubois, 14, asked the
public to focus its efforts on Mickey's case.

Dubois made the appeal during a March 9 court hearing for John
Gardner III, a registered sex offender suspected of raping and
killing Poway teen Chelsea King last month.

Amber's skeletal remains were found March 6 in a shallow grave
on the Pala Indian Reservation; she disappeared Feb. 13, 2009,
while walking to school. Authorities have said Gardner also is a
focus of the investigation into Amber's death.

"As the media fire is now lit, maybe people will remember seeing
a kid hiking on Thanksgiving weekend," said Chris Crawford, a
friend of Mickey's family, adding that he hopes the coverage will
generate tips in Mickey's disappearance.

Mickey took his mother's Jeep without permission Nov. 25, family
members have said. He joined friends for a camping trip at Anza
Borrego State Park and was last seen at the campsite heading out
for a drive Nov. 27.

The Jeep was found abandoned, damaged and stuck in sand with
many of Mickey's belongings inside, according to the Facebook page.
A blanket that might have been Mickey's was found about two miles
from the vehicle.

Deputies searched the desert with helicopters and people on the
ground, said Capt. Don Crist of the San Marcos Sheriff's Station.
He said thousands of man-hours have been spent on the investigation
and that detectives are still working to find Mickey.

County sheriff's officials said they found no evidence of foul
play in Mickey's disappearance and that he had run away from home
more than once before.

The week before he disappeared, Mickey stole his father's
motorcycle and took it to Riverside County where he reported to
authorities that he had been kidnapped, triggering a helicopter
search, San Diego County sheriff's officials said.

He later admitted to Riverside County sheriff's deputies that he
stole the motorcycle and lied about the kidnapping, officials
said.

Mickey was listed as a "runaway juvenile" on the California
attorney general's office's state list of missing people Friday
afternoon, despite a recent update to the Help Find Mickey Guidry
Facebook page that says his case has been reclassified as a missing
person.

Officials at the attorney general's office confirmed Friday that
the information on the site is correct and that the case has not
been reclassified.

San Diego County sheriff's officials said Friday they were still
investigating Mickey's case as a runaway and they had not received
any new leads or information that might change that
classification.

Crawford said the reason for Mickey's disappearance doesn't
matter ---- what matters is bringing him home.

"The only word that I’ve been trying to get out is that a kid is
missing," he said. "Let’s get closure, let’s find him."

About 70 people, including Amber Dubois’ father, searched a remote
section of the Anza-Borrego Desert over the weekend for a 16-year-old
boy who has been missing since November but were unable to find any
trace of him.

Mickey Guidry, a San Marcos High School student, has not been seen
since Thanksgiving
weekend when he took his parents’ Jeep Cherokee
without permission to meet some friends in the desert, said family
friend Chris Crawford.

On Saturday, volunteers spent 10 hours scouring the rocky and rugged
terrain in and around the trail where the Jeep was found. Crawford said
they eliminated several areas but still have more places to look in the
desolate and harsh environment.

The teen was at a campsite off Split Mountain Road in Ocotillo Wells
when he left, presumably to go home. He drove off on an isolated dirt
road.

The Jeep was found that weekend broken down and abandoned on an
off-road trail in Fish Creek Wash with the keys, the teen’s wallet and
other belongings still inside, Crawford said. It was about eight miles
from the nearest paved road.

Friends and family searched for the boy in the days after he did not
return home and reported him missing to authorities, who originally
classified him as a runaway. He had been in trouble the week before
after taking his stepfather’s motorcycle for a joy ride, Crawford said.

The Sheriff’s Department conducted a search from land and the air
about three weeks later and discovered a blanket that belonged to the
teen about 1½ miles northeast of the abandoned Jeep. No other sign of
him was ever found.

Crawford said that barring foul play or injury, he thinks the teen
would have been able to walk out after the Jeep broke down. Or perhaps
he got a ride.

All of the teen’s friends say they have not heard from him. His cell
phone has not been used and there has been no activity on MySpace or Facebook.
Crawford said he thinks it’s possible but not likely that he is hiding
out somewhere, worried that he would get in trouble for taking the Jeep.
But if that were the case, Crawford is sure they would have heard
something.

“Some info would have bubbled up to the surface by now,” he said.

Crawford said the family appreciated the volunteers’ efforts,
especially the help of Moe Dubois, who was instrumental in getting
searchers organized. Dubois’ daughter, Amber, disappeared while walking
to school Feb. 13, 2009. Her remains were found March 5 in a remote area
off Pala-Temecula Road

Guidry’s parents are assessing what their next step will be.

The family hopes that if the story is kept in the public eye, someone
with information may come forward. Crawford also said that if the boy
is alive, maybe he will see the coverage and come home.

“Hopefully he’ll realize that he’s loved and come forward,” Crawford
said.

More information can be found at mickeyguidry.com.

http://missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PubCaseSearchServlet?act=viewChildDetail&caseNum=1137889&orgPrefix=NCMC&seqNum=1&caseLang=en_US&searchLang=en_US

missing mickey guidry listed at NCMEC

An intense search effort for a missing San Marcos teen is scheduled from
7 a.m. to 5 p.m. May 1 and May 2 at the Harper Flats area inside Anza
Borrego Desert State Park.

16-year-old Mickey Guidry (AKA Mike
or Mikey) has been missing since Thanksgiving 2009. On April 25, tire
cover from Mickey’s Jeep was recovered, altering the target search
location. Mickey was camping at 5454 Split Mountain Road in Ocotillo
Wells. Adults close to Mickey report that he left to return home at
approximately 3 p.m. on Nov. 27, and never returned.

Mickey’s
Jeep was found on Nov. 28 at Fish Creek Wash along a rugged, rocky
off-road vehicle trail. All of his personal belongings were inside the
vehicle, including his wallet, clothing, and school ID. Keys to the
vehicle were in the ignition, and the car battery was dead. The front
right tire was missing and the spare was flat, indicating he had changed
a tire trying to get out of the wash.

Mickey is 5 feet 10
inches tall and weighs 155 pounds. He has sandy blonde hair and blue
eyes.

Volunteers are asked to bring sufficient water supply, and
wear sunscreen and appropriate clothing for high-temp weather
conditions. No children under 18 are permitted on the search. Licensed
four-wheel drive vehicles, search and rescue personnel, and military
personnel are needed.

The terrain of the search area mandates
that only physically fit individuals who can hike at length are allowed
to participate. Temperatures are expected to be in the 90-degree range.
Do not attempt to volunteer if you are not physically fit.

Photo
ID will be required upon registration. If you would like to get
involved, contact search organizers immediately at (800) 921-5214 or at
(323) 639-3049.

Endangered
Runaway

MICKEY GUIDRY DOB: Aug 3, 1993 Missing: Nov 26, 2009 Height: 5'10" (178 cm) Eyes: Blue Race: White Age Now: 16 Sex: Male Weight: 155 lbs (70 kg) Hair: Sandy Missing From: SAN MARCOS CA United States Mickey was last seen on November 26, 2009. He may travel to the San Diego, California area. Mickey's nicknames are Mikey and Mike.

ANYONE HAVING INFORMATION SHOULD CONTACT National Center for Missing & Exploited Children 1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST) San Diego County Sheriff's Office - San Marcos Station (California) 1-760-510-5200

https://www.facebook.com/posted.php?id=351259317751&share_id=121552134522557&comments=1#!/group.php?gid=351259317751&v=wall

:O( No new updates.

The blue Jeep Grand Cherokee driven by 16-year-old Mickey James Guidry was found abandoned in the Anza Borrego desert two days after Thanksgiving. That was Thanksgiving a year ago. No one has reported seeing him since. The disappearance of the San Marcos teen, which ECM previously reported on, remains unsolved despite numerous searches by volunteers and the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department. Sheriff’s Sgt. Don Parker, emergency services division search and rescue coordinator, headed up the most recent Anza Borrego search about two months ago. Nothing was spotted, he said. It was Sgt. Parker who in April was the last to find evidence in the case. On April 25th, during one of the search and rescue efforts, he located the Grand Cherokee’s vinyl spare tire cover. He described the location as being in dangerous, rocky terrain more than a mile from where the Jeep was found. “Even in broad daylight, you have to watch where you put every step,” Sgt. Parker said. Further describing the area in which the tire cover was found, he added, “There are rocks the size of bowling balls and some as large as Volkswagens.” He added, “Every time we’ve gone out there, our search and rescue people have come back having been stuck with cactus needles.” The search teams have covered several square miles of Anza Borrego in areas known as Pinyon Mountain trail, Pinyon Wash, Harper Flat and Harper Canyon, but “the only thing the additional searches have done is eliminate where he hadn’t gone,” Sgt. Parker said. He said that 40 to 50 square miles of desert or more remains to be searched. “Even in areas we’ve already searched, I’m not entirely sure he’s not there…If he’s still out there, if he’s still out there in the area of Pinyon Flat or Pinyon Wash, it would be very difficult to find him.” But Sgt. Parker added, “If he did make it out of there, someone must have seen him or knows what happened to him, and we need them to call and tell us.” Mickey Guidry, on Mt. PalomarSgt. Parker said he has four “open” cases that he’s working as the coordinator for search and rescue, but Guidry’s disappearance is the only one involving a juvenile. He further commented, “They vanish, but they’re not forgotten. People may think they’re forgotten, but they’re not.” The investigation into Guidry’s disappearance was initially slowed by conflicting circumstances dating back a week prior when the teen erroneously reported being kidnapped to cover up damaging his father’s motorcycle. His mother, Missy Perucca, said that incident was out of character for her son and he didn’t realize the trouble he would cause by making up that story. The father of Amber Dubois, a teen found slain a year after she went missing, has been helping in the search for Mickey Guidry.Maurice Dubois is one of the dozens of volunteers who participated in the desert searches for Guidry. Dubois is also the father of 14-year-old Amber Dubois of Escondido, whose body was found last March, a year after she went missing. In 2009, Dubois founded More Kids, an organization that spearheaded successful state legislation in recent months giving the community improved means for readily locating missing children. An underlying objective of that legislation is to prompt law enforcement to act more quickly and more effectively in missing juvenile cases. Dubois said that “past case history shows that 70 to 80 percent (of missing children) are runaways” and that leads “law enforcement to believe that any teenager over the age of 13 is a runaway. We’re trying to prove them otherwise.” But, Dubois doubts any of the legislation promoted by More Kids would have helped in the search for Guidry had they been in place at the time of his disappearance. “Our laws would have had no effect on his situation,” Dubois said. The search for Mickey “was a very difficult situation mostly because of what happened to him weeks earlier,” he said, referring to the false kidnapping report. “When you have a child that’s cried ‘wolf’ in an attempt to cover up his own bad behavior, it absolutely, without a doubt affected how law enforcement responded.” Dubois continued, “But, if you look at just the facts of his disappearance, where he broke down and the scenario at that time, we realize this was a 16-year-old kid that was in a lot of danger. The Anza Borrego desert is so big. It’s so dangerous out there. If you think where he broke down, 10 miles from nowhere, and try to figure out what his frame of mind was at the time, you realize the danger he faced.” Juvenile investigations Detective Patrick Yates of the Sheriff’s San Marcos substation leads the investigation into Guidry’s disappearance. He’s been on the case since the beginning and, like Sgt. Parker, says it’s “open and active.” Just the same, though, he said, “Nothing has been learned about the possible whereabouts of Mickey Guidry. All investigative leads have been followed but none have been fruitful in helping to locate Mickey.” In pursuit of uncovering Guidry’s whereabouts, Detective Yates said he’s in “regular contact” with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Through the national center, law enforcement agencies throughout the country are kept updated on the status of Guidry’s disappearance, he said. “The Sheriff’s Department has no reason to believe that Mickey has been the victim of foul play. Of course, we don’t know what has become of him so all possibilities have been considered,” Detective Yates said. Guidry’s is one of seven cases assigned to Detective Yates. But it’s not like any of the others, he said. “All of them are runaways but none of them are at-risk. Unlike Mickey’s case, none of them have suspicious circumstances related to them. “ Detective Yates further explained, “Mickey’s case is very different than that of most other missing juvenile cases. The overwhelming number of missing juvenile cases are due to the juvenile running away or being a victim of a family abduction usually at the hands of a parent and as part of a child custody case. Those types of cases are usually resolved in short order. If not, then law enforcement usually has a general idea as to where the juvenile is and with whom they are residing. With regards to Mickey’s case, we have no strong indication as to where he may be.” Detective Yates said anyone that has information which may help in locating Guidry should call him at the Sheriff’s San Marcos substation. His direct phone number is 760-510-5233. Guidry’s mother, Missy Perucca, is among those involved in the case with whom he keeps in regular contact, according to Detective Yates, but there’s been very little to be said in several months. “It’s been a long year with no closure,” Perucca said. “We don’t seem any closer to finding him than we were a year ago – there have been no clues, no leads, no tips. Nobody has heard from Mickey. But, on the flip side, nothing has been found in the desert -- no clothing, no phone, etc., -- so that gives a small glimmer of hope that he may have gotten out of the desert. ” Perucca said, “The main thing right now is to get Mickey’s face back into the media so that people will remember his story, see his face and maybe someone will remember seeing him,” and alert authorities.

4 years later, still no sign of San Marcos teen
Mickey Guidry disappeared in the desert the day after Thanksgiving

By J. Harry Jones
4:33 P.M.NOV. 28, 2013

ANZA BORREGO DESERT STATE PARK — It was the day after Thanksgiving four years ago that 16-year-old Mickey Guidry disappeared in the vast Anza-Borrego Desert.

There have been no new developments, his mother, Missy Parker, says.

“It’s the worst time of the year for me,” she said Wednesday. “Especially now with all of the McStay news. It just brings everything back.”

The McStay family of Fallbrook disappeared a bit more than two months after Mickey. The remains of all four members of the family were recently found buried in the desert near Victorville.

Background: Mickey was in trouble at home. A week before Thanksgiving, 2009, he stole his stepfather’s motorcycle and wrecked it in the Riverside County mountains, then told sheriff’s deputies a tall tale of how a band of motorcycles thieves had taken it. Deputies soon figured out Mickey’s lie, and he was grounded when he returned home and forbidden to go to the desert for the holiday as he had been planning.

But on Thanksgiving Mickey took off again without permission, this time in a Jeep Cherokee he had recently been given by his Mom. He headed toward Ocotillo Wells, where a friend was camping with her family. He stayed the night, but the next day the girl’s parents told him to go home and gave him enough gasoline to get back to San Marcos.

Instead, Mickey took off south that afternoon deep into the desert.

That weekend, hikers in Fish Creek Wash found the SUV broken down. One of the wheel rims was severely banged up with the edges crunched rendering it useless. A side mirror was ripped off as well. Inside the Jeep were Mickey’s wallet and cellphone charger but not the phone. Records would show it was never used again.

The SUV had broken down near an established hiking trail 7.8 miles south of state Route 78. About 1.5 miles north of the Jeep, searchers found a blanket that had been in the SUV. Then they discovered a cover for the Jeep’s spare tire near the top of a hill not far from where the blanket was recovered.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Don Parker, the longtime head of the Sheriff’s Department Search & Rescue team, never met Mickey. But he feels like he knows him. During one of the dozens of searches he has conducted in the desert he met Missy and the two fell in love. They married almost three years ago, bound by a missing child and a mystery.

“There’s nothing new,” Don Parker said Wednesday. “Our homicide (unit) has the case and did a review of it. They determined there is nothing else they can do at this point.”

Don Parker said the scenarios are still wide open. “The only possibility that is getting narrower and narrower is that Mickey made it out and made it off the grid.”

“We don’t know why he would do that though,” Missy Parker said.

In this high-tech day and age its simply very hard to stay unnoticed, Don Parker said.

It is still possible Mickey’s remains are somewhere in the desert. “The terrain is really is rough,” he said. “The fact is there are so many holes and nooks and crannies to look where a teenager who was cold and hungry may have hidden.”

jharry.jones@utsandiego.com; (760) 529-4931

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/Nov/28/mickey-guidry-desert-missing-disappeared/